Pilot: Tangible Interaction Kiosks: Integrating Physical/Digital Interaction and Visual Design to Support Creativity in K-12 Informal Science Education

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This project develops and applies ?tangible interaction kiosks? to support creativity in K-12 informal science education. It is a collaboration among design and computational faculty and students, and builds on synergistic ongoing NSF and state-funded efforts. Tangible interaction kiosks are a platform for human-computer interaction that combine interaction devices (developed with support from NSF MRI 0521559) and static and dynamic visuals. This builds upon previous efforts to support informal middle school science education, in cooperation with the Louisiana-based NSF LIGO Science Education Center (SEC) and extends to several middle schools across Louisiana. The first kiosk content is a multi-player ?Powers of Ten? game where competing children attempt to guess the physical scale of successive images. Movie or game content is chosen through a tangible interface, while child interaction is conducted through several knob-augmented handheld computersThis NSF pilot carries out new three-pronged research with focus upon the development of creative tools for graphic designers, domain scientists, K-12 teachers, and K-12 student end-users who take on central roles in new content production. The researchers are developing, applying, and evaluating:? tools that support authoring new content for variations of the existing educational game;? tools for allowing graphic designers, domain scientists, K-12 teachers, and K-12 student end users to engage in content creation, leveraging the existing Anoto and LiveScribe smart pen technologies; and? discussions and planning toward generalizing this approach to other scientific domains and audiences, in support of a full CreativeIT proposal to be proposed for launch after the two-year pilot.The proposal focuses upon the support of creativity with information technology, and innovative educational approaches. The tools? creativity support is being evaluated on:? how the platform enhances the creative processes of iterative interaction design;? how the platform enhances the creative process of content production; and? how content delivered on the platform supports creativity in the learning processes of student users.